National Clean Off Your Desk Day

A couple years ago I realized that there’s a whole different calendar system alive on the world wide web. Have you noticed it? National Strawberry Ice Cream Day, National Dress Up Your Pet Day, National Rubber Ducky Day…you get the idea.

While some of these days seem a bit, um, ridiculous, TODAY happens to be National Clean Off Your Desk Day! And THAT, my friends, is NOT ridiculous!

Most of you know that I don’t blog full-time – I also work a full-time job outside the home in insurance marketing, and I run my own photography business. So that means that I have several “desks”. (Well, two of them are actually tables, but you get the idea!)

When it comes to my full-time job, throughout the work day my desk stays pretty messy. I’ve got a lot going on! But the last thing I do when I leave is make sure that it’s totally cleaned off and everything is put away where it goes, so when I come into work the next day, I can start with a clean desk!

My home office is used for everything else, but sometimes the work “overflows”, if you know what I mean. For instance, over the holidays, all of the workspace in the home office was taken up with blogging and Christmas parties and promotions online. I had to move all of my photography work into our dining room, and all of the Christmas work went into the room we call our “project” room. (Basically it’s a spare room we have that will be used as a nursery sometime down the line, but right now it’s closets hold all of our holiday decorations, and it also holds things like extra dining table chairs, and a work-table, too.)

There was so much going on that things got a little crazy, and to be honest, I’m still putting everything back together!

So that’s why this day is perfect, as far as I’m concerned! We’re at the start of a new year – isn’t it a great time to evaluate your working space and clean it up if need be? Imagine the benefit on your focus and productivity the rest of the year!

So, if you’re looking at a messy desk right now and you’re feeling overwhelmed, no worries at all. I have one simple piece of advice for you: MAKE STACKS.

That’s all! Make stacks! Three stacks, to be exact. You can make three stacks!

Garbage (And don’t say that everything you have is important and can’t be thrown away…that’s a whole different post! I guarantee you that you will find at least three things to put in your Garbage stack!)

Stack #2

Action(Whether it’s a bill to be paid, a paper to grade, software to return or a picture to hang on the fridge, it requires action. Don’t DO it…just put it in the stack.)

Stack #3

File (In order to keep yourself from having to continually work in the mess, some things just need to be put away. Again, don’t DO it right this minute…just put it in the stack.)

Hey, guess what? You’ve just made sense of the mess! Shred your Garbage stack, and come back tomorrow! When you return, file a few papers and take action on a few items.

If something new arises, add it to one of your stacks! Before you know it, your desk will be wide open and even more conducive to your creative genius!

What about you? Does YOUR desk need cleaning? What do you think of the STACKS idea? What’s YOUR best tip?

Due to the amount of comments from all of my wonderful readers, it is not always possible for me to respond to each one. However, I absolutely do read them all, and if you’d like to address something specific, or have a question for me, please don’t hesitate to email me at Kristen@theroadtodomestication.com. I will respond to your email as soon as possible! Thank you for visiting the blog!

I so needed this today. My old desk finally bit the dust a few months ago and I’ve been using a console table that I’ve redone until I find the right desk for me and to fit in the space it needs to fit in. It’s actually the perfect height for a desk, but it has no storage drawers. I’m going to clean off my desk today with your 3 stack tips. Thanks, Kristen.

I would really like to get this done today but I am going to babysit for awhile so it may have to wait until tomorrow. I would love to have one of those calenders printed off though! I wonder where you would fine one…any ideas?

Cleaning off your desk and staying organized is essential if you want to increase your productivity and get things done. I don’t particularly agree with the stacking method as I think you should touch it once and be done with it, but I can see how this method might work for some people.

I also have a full time job with additional blog and personal business at home. I do use the stack method to a point but I end up with more than 3 stacks. For the new year one of my goals is to file more and clean off my desk more often.

I’ve moved my blogging to our dining room table and then my laptop gets moved all around the house when we need to use the table. It’s bad. I need to clean off my home desk when I get home tonight. (This afternoon I will be doing the piling at work. Thanks for the push!)

This is a good goal for today, and I think I’m going to go ahead and follow through with it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction today. (I also like your stack plan for cleaning up. I think I’ll have to use that going forward).

Yes, I have a messy desk (both at home, and at my corporate job). The best thing that can happen? Have to move! I had to move to a different (and smaller) location in my office several months ago, and that worked wonders for me downsizing. Extreme but effective. I’ve tried the “touch only once” method and the “don’t print your emails” method, too.

That is a great idea an I bet it works well! I no longer have clutter to deal with. I bought a great desk and shelving arrangement a year or so ago and I make sure I put everything away on a daily basis so I don’t have to worry about losing anything.

I beat you too it all ready my husband set up my new office space and I have only the minutes I need to type for the next board meeting other then some home work sheets my daughter has to complete for tomorrow I don’t have a lot of stuff on desk you can even check out my blog to take a look. I posted a photo of my office space a while back. I’m blogging in comfort now.

If I had a desk I would be all over this, I just sit in the corner of my couch and clutter up the end cushion. I’ve been trying to get things together and organized and it’s not working out so well. Very slow going.